DeWitt taking job at school alma mater

Bill DeWitt, who coached the Eudora High wrestling team for seven years, is leaving to take a job as the principal of his alma mater, Thomas More Prep-Marian High School in Hays.

“I’m excited and terrified all at the same time,” DeWitt said. “Honestly, going back to Hays was something I didn’t honestly think was going to happen. It’s just kind of exciting the way it all worked out.”

DeWitt said the decision to leave Eudora was one of the toughest he’s ever made.

“It was tough and it has been tough,” DeWitt said. “It’s just hard for those kids to kind of understand the big picture, what it is for me in terms of wanting to move up into administration. But for the most part, those kids knew that was something I wanted to do. I think the hardest thing was telling them the first day, and I think by the next day they kind of realized, ‘Hey, this is a good opportunity for coach, so we’re going to support him.”

With DeWitt as coach, the Eudora wrestling team finished third in the league the last two seasons and qualified numerous wrestlers for the state tournament. Eudora also had four wrestlers -- Boomer Mays, Caleb Clayton-Molby, Cody Salzman and Thomas McLees -- qualify for the state tournament last year.

DeWitt said next year’s Eudora wrestling team could be one of the best wrestling teams the school has had in a while, and he noted that the team could content for the league title next year.

DeWitt said some of his favorite memories while coaching at Eudora went beyond the wins and losses on the wrestling mat.

“This year was kind of good,” DeWitt said. “Getting to 100 victories is kind of a nice personal goal, but obviously I couldn’t have done that without a lot of really, really good kids along the way. I’ve just been fortunate to have a lot of good kids come through and some of my best memories are not necessarily always being wrestling. A lot of them are when I see those guys two or three years later in college and they remember well their experience.”

DeWitt said he is scheduled to begin his new job on July 1, and added that he would still be a fan of Eudora wrestling.